Chapter 257: 258. Chapter 255: Invalid

258. Chapter 255: Invalid

Selling out, betrayal—how should one put this?

It's like a membrane.

Before piercing this membrane, it requires a lot of psychological construction, and it also requires some situational things, such as encountering some irresistible force, eventually having to choose this path.

Then it's sliding into the abyss step by step, but at the very last moment, they will still try to hold onto this bottom line until it is truly pierced.

Once pierced, some things become meaningless; the previous persistence and holding on also become a joke at this moment, and the mindset will also undergo a rapid transformation.

It is even possible that because this membrane is pierced, one gains some resources and benefits that could not be obtained before, thereby regarding selling out and betrayal as a normal means.

People often say that once values are established, they won't change. In fact, this view is wrong; they don't change because the power of change is still too weak.

When the power of change is strong enough, even one's worldview will change.

After hearing Lansi's words, Pang Da let out a heavy sigh of relief.

"Don't disturb Lisa, and my family."

Lansi smiled and agreed.

Pang Da still didn't have a very good impression of him. "If there is nothing else, I should go back to work."

He didn't want to say a few more words to Lansi; that membrane of his, the bottom line in his heart, had just been pierced, and he had to slow down.

But Lansi clearly intended to say a little more to him.

"If you receive a report of a major clue and seize liquor worth hundreds of thousands, will it be helpful for your promotion?"

Pang Da, who had intended not to care what Lansi said and hang up the phone, felt his heartbeat suddenly increase.

He even swallowed a mouthful of saliva. "You said... hundreds of thousands?"

"Yes, liquor worth hundreds of thousands. I believe the Congress and the Hazardous Materials Administration need to set up a new benchmark, a banner."

"If you get this clue, will you be reused?"

Pang Da fell into thought. Undoubtedly, he would definitely be valued by Director Dai Er, even if only for a while.

Now everyone can feel the pressure on Director Dai Er. As a vertically managed law enforcement department, the director represents the greatest manager at every level.

Using "ruler" is not very good, but they do indeed exercise a part of the power that only rulers have.

He thought of many things, ideological struggle; he knew this was Lansi's "bait." As long as he bit this bait, he would slide deeper and deeper step by step.

At this moment, he suddenly understood one thing!

When he was a child, he felt those fish were very stupid. His father and grandfather liked fishing. He asked them, couldn't those fish discover the fishhook next to the bait?

His father and grandfather didn't answer. He felt the fish were stupid at the time.

Clearly able to see the fishhook at a glance, why still eat it?

But at this moment, he suddenly understood the fish's feeling, because he himself was like a fish.

He knew there was a fishhook hidden in this bait, but he still couldn't help but want to swallow it in one gulp.

He maintained his sanity and asked, "What do I need to pay?"

The devil's voice came from the receiver. "We are friends; friends helping each other is what should be done."

Without waiting for Pang Da to have more reactions, Lansi ended this conversation. "I will call you in the near future; by then I will tell you the specific location directly. I have something to do now."

The busy tone of ending soon came from the receiver. Pang Da looked at the receiver in his hand, suddenly feeling a bit lost.

He returned to the office, and his colleagues teased him. "Talked it over with your girlfriend?"

Pang Da scratched his head a bit embarrassedly. "No problem."

Amidst his colleagues' teasing about when they could attend their wedding, he sat back in his seat, but at this moment he could no longer look into those clues; his brain was full of the words Lansi told him.

Smuggled liquor worth hundreds of thousands!

With this credit, he might also be able to become a senior agent!

More income, a better future—only in this way can he build a safe, reliable, and warm home for the bruised Lisa!

Ma Zi felt a kind of indescribable relaxation these past two days, as if... suddenly there was no great pressure.

Before, he felt great pressure, as if someone had been watching him, but he had never discovered who was watching him.

Eventually, he could only think this was "undercover syndrome." The contact who trained him had talked to him about this, saying he would have a very nervous sense of unease at the beginning.

Once he gradually adapted to his current life, he would soon not have that feeling.

He spent every day in an indescribable working atmosphere: getting up after nine in the morning, then eating something, and starting work.

He initially thought gangs didn't need to work, but what he didn't expect was that gangs also need to work—moving things or doing other things. After eating lunch, the afternoon belonged to free time, with at least four or five hours.

Just need to arrive at the bar before five-thirty.

His identity is a dream-chaser from out of town, finally penniless because of exploitation by capitalists, and finally joined the Lansi family with the help of this Empire immigrant identity.

So he has no friends or family here.

The contact would contact him once a week. He needed to compile the things he recorded onto a piece of paper, then roll it up and stuff it into a cigarette.

By then, the contact would appear around him, and then he would borrow a light from the contact, taking the opportunity to hand the intelligence disguised as a cigarette to the other party.

A very perfect plan; he and the contact had practiced it several times and could already do it very naturally.

Today was the time they agreed upon. After eating lunch, he returned to his room.

After confirming the marked cigarette again and again, he tidied himself up and prepared to go out.

"Ma Zi, going out?"

Before leaving, Ailun, who was playing darts with others, asked.

Ma Zi nodded with a smile. "Going out for a stroll; a bit stuffy."

Ailun changed his position while holding the cue. "You should go find a girl to relax; they will give you a good discount!"

Ma Zi's face was a bit red. He had dated, but no relationship beyond friendship had occurred. This topic made him feel a bit embarrassed.

He didn't want to continue getting entangled, then walked out of the company. After he left, the few people playing darts all stopped...

After walking out of the company, Ma Zi walked toward the east end along the sidewalk. His eyes searched on the sidewalk, and sometimes he would suddenly look back at his back to confirm no one was following him.

What he didn't know was that two cars were alternately following him.

There is a crossroads heading east from the Wanli Office, and there is a small garden that is not very big by the side of the road at this crossroads.

Many homeless people used to gather here, but since the Lansi family came here, the homeless have all disappeared.

No one knows where they went; some say they went to work, others say they were driven away—who knows?

Now this place has become a place where nearby residents like to come. They sit here for a while, chat, and so on.

There are also some elderly people who set up a few tables in the small garden, chatting or playing cards around the tables.

Ma Zi saw his contact here, sitting on a bench by the side of the road, reading an "International News Report."

A look of surprise appeared on his face, so much so that he ignored a car stopping by the side of the road.

He originally wanted to walk over directly, but thinking of the contact process, he began to perform.

He held a cigarette in his mouth, then searched everywhere in his pockets with both hands. Even people who don't smoke know he might be looking for a lighter or matches.

However, it seemed he forgot to bring it. Being so young and having such a bad memory, what should he do when he gets old?

He glanced at the contact reading the newspaper on the bench. His heartbeat began to accelerate, and the beating power was also very strong—thump, thump.

He took out the cigarette containing the intelligence and handed it over. "Sir, do you have a light?"

That person glanced at him, examining him for a few seconds as if they were strangers, then hesitated, took his cigarette, and took out a lighter.

He used the newspaper to cover the movement of his hands, put the cigarette into his pocket, and changed to a cigarette, then lit it himself first.

Even if someone observed, they wouldn't feel there was any problem with this.

After a brief exchange of eyes between the two, Ma Zi lit the cigarette, said thank you, then returned the matches to the other party, and left.

The whole process lasted less than two minutes, very smooth, almost unable to see any major flaws, except that Ma Zi's expression was a bit exaggerated.

Along the way, Ma Zi returned to the company without encountering any obstacles and greeted others very enthusiastically.

He received the first sum of money after joining the Lansi family.

As someone who joined later, he was not qualified to get dividends from the family's profits, but Lansi was not too bad to them. Although he had just joined, he received the Federal standard wage.

If he had done anything else, such as resolving disputes, there would be other subsidies.

He bought some food and shared it with everyone. Everyone thanked him very enthusiastically, but what he didn't notice was that almost all that food was eventually thrown into the trash can.

Yisen stood in Lansi's office looking at Ma Zi. "Why not slaughter him now?"

Lansi was looking at the recent income situation; the price of liquor was still continuing to grow. He looked up and glanced at Ma Zi, who was running around outside the blinds. "Killing them is easy; one bullet is enough."

"But soon they will send a second batch of undercover agents in, then a third batch; it will never end."

"Now use him to pass some wrong information, let the Hazardous Materials Administration realize that sending undercover agents is meaningless, and then solve him."

He paused. "Have the bars been moved?"

Deruixi on the side nodded. "They have been moved."

The current bar has become "lightweight" under Lansi's request. Simply put, the bar's decoration is simpler, no longer pursuing that kind of complete decoration.

A bar counter for the bartender to pour liquor, not even sofa chairs are needed; everyone stands to drink.

For alcoholics, they don't care whether they stand to drink or lie down to drink, as long as there is liquor.

Wooden wine glasses are not worth much money. The whole bar, except for liquor, has nothing valuable.

Plus, liquor is supplied by batch. Even if the bar is caught, the loss is only a batch of liquor worth a few hundred or a thousand dollars.

This method turned the bar into a "daily-disposable type." As long as there are enough venues, one can change a place every day.

The bars where Ma Zi and other undercover agents worked will all be moved tonight. Old alcoholics know how to find these bars, as for those newly joined alcoholics?

If they are really alcoholics and really citizens within the Empire District, they also have their own ways to know where these bars are and how to get in.

After Ma Zi's contact got the clue, he quickly returned to the Hazardous Materials Administration. He excitedly opened the cigarette and took out a piece of paper rolled to the same thickness and size as the cigarette.

Carefully unfolding it, it recorded the location of the bar, the business hours, and some keywords he heard.

For example, "warehouse," "wharf," "smuggling ship"...

This intelligence was very important. The contact person immediately went to find Director Dai Er. Director Dai Er was very satisfied after seeing it and also gave instructions: "I won't ask you who he is; catch him back together tonight to reduce the possibility of his exposure."

"As for the others, talk about it after you come back. Go and mobilize people!"

The contact person was very excited and began to apply for manpower and supporting resources. They were looking forward to the arrival of night.

At eight o'clock in the evening, the agents who had just finished eating and rested for a while received notification and began to act.

This time they dispatched more than thirty people, an armored vehicle, and everyone was armed and headed to the Empire District.

The Empire District has become synonymous with "danger" in the eyes of many people now. The Lansi family launching bloody incidents at every turn made people feel the taste of the bloody storms from more than a decade ago.

Including these law enforcers, if they don't carry a large number of weapons, they will feel unsafe.

Along the way, they didn't sound the sirens and tried to take remote roads. When they were only one intersection away from the scheduled location, they suddenly accelerated and sounded the sirens to rush over!

In the process of searching bars over this period, they discovered that leaving a little time for people in the bar to react actually makes them more chaotic!

Those alcoholics would rush out, and the bar simply couldn't stop the chaos from within.

But when they rushed into the alley, it was unusually quiet here!

Some reporters who got the intelligence also rushed over from the surroundings. In the end, all that was left for them was an abandoned bar.

The contact person bent down with an ugly face and picked up a wooden wine glass from the ground. The wall of the wine glass still looked very moist and emitted a strong smell of liquor.

This shows that it had been used by people not long ago.

But now, everything has ended.

This also made him confused: was the news leaked, or was Ma Zi lying?

The reporters didn't care about this and frantically pressed the shutter. The magnesium light illuminated the basement as if it were daylight!

At the same time, Ma Zi also walked into a new bar with a slightly pale and ugly face. From the gatekeeper to the bartender to the manager, they were all the previous batch, but the place was not the previous place!

His first feeling was that he had been discovered, but soon he got intelligence from others—

"Change a place every week. The noses of the grey dogs of the Hazardous Materials Administration are too sensitive and chase too tightly. This is Lansi's decision."

The uniform of the Hazardous Materials Administration presents a grey-white color, which is a very fashionable color in this period. Now some people call them "grey dogs," which is a derogatory term for them.

This news made Ma Zi feel a headache, because he only passed news once a week. Calculated this way, every time he passed news, it would be outdated news. He had to find a way to contact the contact person.

The bar's business was still as good as before, even a little better!

Because Nick's wine began to be listed on a large scale, the alcohol content of these wines is higher than beer, but the price is not high.

Many people who drink beer have begun to drink this kind of homemade wine. Higher alcohol can make them get a more satisfying drunken experience.

The whole room was filled with a strong smell of liquor.

At the same time, on the wharf, several people in blue work clothes came to the side of a warehouse.

After they confirmed that there was no one in the warehouse, a guy used the tools he made to open the warehouse door very quickly.

They left one person to keep watch, and the other few people all entered the warehouse.

In the warehouse, they looked through a large amount of goods, didn't find the things they wanted, and then closed the warehouse door and walked to the next one.

Meiluo found some reliable people who were closer to Lansi and the Lansi family to help them find which warehouse had liquor.

In addition to giving them a reward, they would also become peripheral members of the Lansi family and receive an extra sum of money from the company every month.

Although not much, who wouldn't want this kind of free benefit?

And joining the Lansi family meant they would never be bullied again.

Whether it was being bullied by outsiders or being bullied by their own people.

Recently, some individual phenomena have appeared in the blue work clothes group. After losing external survival pressure, some internal problems began to be exposed.

For example, "work bullies" appeared. They don't work themselves, but require others to complete their work to exchange for not being bullied by them.

Perhaps this is the inferior nature of human beings. No matter in any world, any era, or any cultural environment background, it will always exist.

Meiluo actually didn't know much about this matter. During this period, in addition to being busy with the office's affairs, he was also reviewing his lessons, preparing to go to university to study law.

There was a slight omission in management work, and those who were bullied actually didn't want to cause trouble.

Because they couldn't distinguish whether those who bullied them were just illegal immigrants like themselves, or peripheral members of the Lansi family.

After turning through more than a dozen warehouses, a few people finally found a warehouse.

The guy who opened the lock smiled as soon as he entered, because there was a faint smell of liquor floating in the air!

They turned on the lights and looked at the liquor piled up like a mountain, their faces revealing wild joy! ===== CHAPTER 258 =====